Sexual misconduct findings to be permanently listed on doctor registrations
Health practitioners will now have proven findings of sexual misconduct permanently listed on their public registration, giving patients the ability to make more informed choices about who they seek care from.
Until now, a practitioner would only have active sanctions or suspensions listed on their registration and once any conditions were inactive, they would be removed from public view.
As previous reporting by the ABC has revealed, this means patients would have no idea they were seeing a clinician who had been sanctioned for anything from inappropriate prescribing to sexual assault.
The Australia Health Practitioners Regulation Agency (AHPRA) had been pushing for change in this space for years.
Amendments to the act that regulates registration were passed in the Queensland Parliament overnight.
Once changes are made to the act in Queensland, they will be adopted in all other states and territories, AHPRA says.
AHPRA Acting CEO Kym Ayscough said the new measures were a milestone in patient protection and will come into effect progressively over the next year.
“Choosing a health practitioner is a critical part of protecting your health and wellbeing. These reforms will ensure that people have access to the information they need to make an informed choice,”
Ms Ayscough said.
Queensland Health Minister Tim Nicholls, who introduced the bill, said the public had a right to know if their provider had a history relating to sexual misconduct.
“The bill reflects community expectations about safety and respect in the health professions. The public and practitioners all agree that sexual misconduct has no place in health care,” Mr Nicholls said.
The change will apply to all AHPRA registered practitioners including doctors, nurses, midwives, optometrists, physiotherapists, podiatrists and psychologists.
Other changes passed in Queensland mean it will now be an offence for a practitioner to intimidate or threaten someone who has made a complaint about them to AHPRA.
It will also be unlawful to dismiss or refuse employment to someone because they have made a complaint or are providing assistance to persons involved in a complaint.
Spike in complaints
Finally, the new amendments also bring in changes regarding any non-disclosure agreements (NDA) between a patient and practitioner.
Sometimes compensation is agreed upon directly between the two parties and a patient is asked to sign an NDA preventing them from disclosing the details of the alleged misconduct to a third party.
But now a practitioner cannot enter into an NDA unless it specifically states that a patient still has the right to make a report to the regulatory body.
In recent years there’s been a spike in complaints to AHPRA about “boundary violations” which include inappropriate or sexualised remarks, being intimate without consent, personal relationships where there is an imbalance of power and sexual harassment.
In 2024 there were 1,156 complaints to AHPRA — an increase of nearly 38 per cent from the previous year.
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